HOUSING COMPLEX responds to my post on 'affordable' housing
When I wrote yesterday's editorial on my feelings on concentrating "affordable" and subsidized housing in poor neighborhoods I wrote it in response to an article written earlier in the day by Washington City Paper reporter Aaron Wiener. The subject of the article was the status of a group of 20 apartment buildings in Anacostia that are currently abandoned but at one time housed about 1,000 Section 8 tenants. Aaron's premise in his article was that it would be a shame if the units were not reopened and returned to the rolls as affordable housing (what I assumed he meant exclusively Section 8 housing).
Obviously I disagreed and wrote my super long post on the subject. :)
The great thing is that out of those posts, more dialogue was spawned both on Aaron's article, my post, and via Twitter. People were sharing ideas and knowledge on the subject and while I still don't understand (at all) the practicality of concentrating putting poor, unemployed, and disadvantaged people in economically depressed areas at least I feel that someone somewhere is thinking about it.
In response, Aaron Wiener wrote another post including my comments and my post and clarifying his earlier position to make it more specific he feels mixed development is the way to go with some lower income housing included in that.
I will leave my thoughts on mixed income development for another day but I did want to point out the exchange of a healthy, thoughtful dialogue and how we can work together even if we don't see "eye to eye" all the time.
I can really respect that.
But please, please, please can we please get serious about achieving significant economic development in Ward 8--- for all of our sakes?
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